Chapter 22

It was a simple plan, but it required all of them to work together. The twins would be responsible for distracting Jenba Ansong, which they both dreaded but understood was necessary. Harlow would go to the house to fetch new sheets for the bed while Lennard would go and check on Maka in the recovery room.

With the arrangements made, Harlow ended the mindscape and they all regained their physical forms. Their tails were still intertwined, but they quickly unraveled from each other. Doing so almost felt like losing a part of themselves now.

They nodded in acknowledgement, all understanding their roles. The twins went into the waiting room and began by whispering to Mika, while Harlow left for the house. Lennard moved into the recovery room to check on Maka.

A few moments later, Mrs. Ansong returned from using the facilities and Lennard directed her away.

Jenba?" Lennard asked as Harlow entered the room carrying the clean bedding. "Would you mind giving us the room so we can clean the bedding?"

She agreed, and Lennard gently guided her to the waiting room with an outstretched arm. She followed him, and noticed the twins there, whispering animatedly with each other.

They noticed her entering the room and initiated part two of the plan.

"She's right there, let's just do it!" Neko whispered loudly enough for everyone to hear and gestured towards the woman.

"Fine," came the subdued voice of Niko. He turned towards Jenba and extended his hand. "Jenba, we are so sorry to hear about Maka. We are both crossing our fingers for his full recovery."

"Thank you... Neko?" She was unable to tell them apart, like most people, so had to guess at who she was speaking with.

"Niko, but no matter."

"I'm Neko, and we were wanting to talk to you about something else as well."

They pulled her fully into the room and into conversation. They had told Mika of the plan, and she moved towards Kija to keep her occupied as well. So far, everything was going smoothly.

Harlow entered the room and could tell that Maka actually needed a change. This complicated things, but not enough to call off the plan now that it had been enacted. He did feel a bit of pity for the twins, as they were going to bring up the subject that they had been avoiding for a while now: The Bonding of Maka and Mika to each other rather than allowing Kyaro to perform the ritual on his son.

He and Lennard moved to the bed, and Lennard said, "We actually do need to change him first."

Harlow had already figured that out, so he nodded and began to loosen the sheets at the bottom of the mattress while Lennard took the top half. They rolled Maka over, and Lennard removed the waste-filled diaper and cleaned him while Harlow gathered the soiled linen.

Once they had finished changing Maka, Lennard and Harlow gently slid his tail to the side of the bed and allowed it to dangle over the side. Once they had tucked him back in, their tails quickly moved into position and they made contact with Maka's tail. They had all decided that Lennard would be a better judge of Maka's actual mental state, so he would accompany Harlow into the mindscape as well.

The transition to the mindscape was instantaneous. Harlow, Lennard, and what appeared to be a strange-looking avatar of Maka appeared in the dining room of The Soft Underside, which is where Harlow kept the mindscape for this interaction.

The avatar of Maka began to shift. The general form remained stable: arms, legs, head, etc. Each remaining mostly in their correct places. However, the details were skewed. Fur coloring shifted, ears and fingers and toes changed places. The mouth roamed over the body unattached, mouthing words that sounded like gibberish.

Lennard was crestfallen. These abnormalities made him believe the brain damage was severe. He moved to the boy's avatar and placed his hands on the shoulders. "Maka, can you hear me?"

Harlow was disturbed by the state of the avatar as well, but in a more nightmarish way. He tried to avert his eyes, but felt like he was missing something. Not something physical, but within the boy's subconscious.

Harlow moved closer to the avatar as well, but moved behind it. He could see a small glowing string, which visually represented the connection between people. However, unlike other connections he had seen, this one began at the avatar's back and led somewhere else.

Harlow tried to follow the string, but couldn't move far enough away to determine where it led. He tried to physically touch it with his avatar, but the light slipped through his fingers. There was definitely something going on here, he just hadn't figured it out yet.

He looked in the direction the string led off to. Harlow could see the auras of the twins there, and realized that Neko and Niko were directly in line with where the connection string ended. He lowered his gaze and followed the string into the distance. It wasn't exactly where the twins stood; it was slightly off to the side. He wondered if that meant anything. He knew that if the connection led to one of them, he would feel it.

He thought about where they were in relation to Maka's mother and sister. They were in the same room as the brothers, so could it be that Maka had a strong connection to one of them? Strong enough to form a visible connection?

Then it dawned on him. Mika was in there as well. She was the one who had brought him in. She was the one who seemed to be so concerned, but kept to the background as though she had done something wrong. She must have touched his tail. No, she must have tried to do The Bonding with him to form this strong of a link between them.

Harlow immediately pulled himself and Lennard away from the avatar and shifted the room to form a wall between them and the misshapen Maka avatar. He wasn't sure what if anything Maka could understand right now, but he needed to speak to Lennard alone.

"What's going on?" Lennard asked.

"He has a bond with Mika," Harlow said abruptly, once they were walled off from the avatar. "Could they have somehow partially bonded and now he is lost without the bond being...?" he searched for the correct word.

"Completed," Lennard filled in, and looked away lost in thought.

Lennard rambled a little while deducing, "He's chasing the dragon, but he can't do it physically because the connection wasn't fully formed and he's in a coma. So instead, he's stuck in this incomplete state until the bond is completed. The concussion must have occurred during the bonding, which obviously wasn't performed correctly either."

"That also explains why you were able to pull us all into the mindscape so easily. He must have at least some of the hairs on the underside of his tail released. Most boys his age do anyway, but it does give the theory that much more credence. Can you show me the link?" Lennard asked.

Harlow opened the room again and led Lennard to the back of Maka's avatar. He showed Lennard where the connection was, but Lennard couldn't see anything.

"I don't see any string, or whatever you call it, here," Lennard said.

"Do you see our connection?" Harlow asked.

"Not really, although I do feel it," Lennard said.

This was news to Harlow. He assumed that everyone saw the same things as he did in the mindscape. However, since this was his psychic ability, it made sense that he would notice things that others couldn't.

It was something he would have to explore later. For the moment, he needed to figure out how to allow Lennard to see what he did. Then he remembered the memory tub.

Harlow changed the mindscape again. The dining room dripped away, like gray paint being washed from the walls, to reveal the jungle and tub which held Lennard's memories. The avatar of Maka remained with them, but off to the side where it continued to morph and gurgle. Its eyes now wandered over its face looking in different directions.

Harlow shivered at the grotesque state of maka’s avatar, but continued what he was here for and manifested a small bowl of water on a pedestal between himself and Lennard. He raised his hand to his head and, to Lennard, it looked as though he stuck his hand inside his skull and withdrew a ball of crystallized water. Harlow placed the ball in the bowl. As soon as it touched the bottom, it liquefied and expanded to fill the entire receptacle.

"What... what just happened?" Lennard asked apprehensively.

Harlow smiled. "I made a little memory pool and put in what I could see and feel coming from Maka. Now you can see and feel the same things I did."

Lennard looked down at the bowl, amazed at what Harlow could do and the ingenuity he had in making such things. He hesitated for only a moment before placing his hand in the water.

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Lennard had been able to relive his own memories in the tub with amazing detail, but this was the first time he had ever experienced the world through someone else's body.

The experience was more than just seeing through Harlow's eyes. It was a complete sensory experience, including feelings, thoughts, and senses.

He watched as he, in Harlow's form, moved behind the avatar. He could feel the sense of being disturbed by the shifting form. But he moved on to the string which attached it to something else. He saw the string, but he could also see the swirling vortex which connected him to Harlow out of the corner of his eye.

He tried to focus on their connection instead. It was a manifestation of their shared vision, he realized, and he desperately wanted to study it more. But it was not to be right now. His gaze shifted in the direction of the string protruding from Maka's back.

Harlow had told him about being able to see the auras of the twins even when they were not in contact, but this was more than he had imagined. He saw the twins standing, moving their arms in what must have been them trying to convince Jenba of the necessity of the bonding.

The string did indeed lead somewhere to the side of them, and he felt Harlow's memory coming to its conclusion. But before it ended, he heard Harlow's inner dialogue: "She must have touched his tail. No, she must have tried to do The Bonding with him to form this strong of a link between them."

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Then the memory ended, and Lennard slid back into his avatar with dizzying speed. He felt like a drop of liquid being sucked through a straw from the memory into his own body.

After a moment of reorientation, he spoke. "Wow, that was intense. I wouldn’t mind doing that more often though." He smiled at Harlow.

The world of the mindscape had returned to the way he perceived it normally. The string was gone, and the vortex connecting him to Harlow was no longer apparent. The entire place felt a little less whole now. He knew this wasn't his ability, but he felt a kind of sadness, like he had lost something great.

"I need to tell Jenba and the twins," Lennard said after a moment of contemplation. "Things are going to get rough, quite possibly for us as well."

Harlow knew it would and understood why Lennard needed to do this. He didn't know the ritual of The Bonding well, but he figured that between the twins and Lennard, they would be able to make it happen and save Maka.

With their path now visible, Harlow mentally nodded to Lennard and severed the connection. They returned to their physical bodies and heard the conversation between the twins and Jenba becoming heated.

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Lennard and Harlow looked at each other curiously and turned to see the twins holding back the Ansong matriarch. It immediately became apparent that time had not slowed down like normal during their connection with Maka’s tail. The twins were buying them as much time as they could before Jenba rushed in and severed the connection manually.

"It's about time!" Neko yelled.

"What are you doing to my boy!" Jenba screamed.

"Maka!" Kija cried from Mika's arms.

"Can we let go now?" Niko asked impatiently.

Lennard nodded and held up his hands in the universal gesture to stop. The twins let the lady loose. She stepped forward but stopped at Lennard's huge upturned hands.

"Jenba, I have good news... sort of." Lennard said.

This caught her attention, and her outrage momentarily subsided. She prompted Lennard to continue with a slight nod.

"We can get Maka's condition to improve, maybe even recover fully." He paused for a moment while the woman registered what he had just told her. Then she remembered the way he phrased the first part.

"Sort of? What's the catch?" Jenba asked skeptically.

Lennard looked up at the twins and told her, "He and Mika will have to fully bond with each other." He noticed the twins look at Mika and smile. He looked down at Jenba's face, which was in a state of confusion.

She understood the words, but putting them together made no sense to her. It went against everything she knew. As she tried to reason through what the physician had said, her eyes saw the three of their tails still loosening and falling apart.

"I know it's difficult to understand, but Maka and Mika have already started The Bonding. That's why Maka is trapped in his own mind. The bond is incomplete, and he will likely never be able to function until it is finished. This is what is keeping him from waking up, it's why he is healing physically, but not mentally." Lennard explained further.

Slowly, her face stopped contorting and landed on a dangerous-looking snarl. She looked up at Lennard with hard eyes. "You violated him! You touched his tail! Was that your plan from the beginning? You think you know what's wrong? Did you get a feeling or something? I think you're just looking for another boy to bond to!" She looked at Harlow as she said the last part, loathing apparent in her eyes.

Lennard's eyes widened in indignation. He had never been so insulted. The insinuation that he had bonded with Harlow just to have a sex partner was ludicrous. Now she thought he was looking for another? He had just explained Maka's link to Mika. How did she get from there to him being a pervert?

“Yes Lennard, I know and So does Kyaro! You and your sick perversion of The Bonding. Making this boy into your sex slave!” The enraged woman poked her finger into Lennard’s chest. “You are not going to get my son like that. Just wait until the Church hears about this.” She said and futilely tried to push Lennard’s bulk out of the way.

Lennard bellowed forcefully, "Now look here!"

Hearing the woman's rant, the twins moved to intercept her. They desperately pulled her back while reassuring her that Lennard had no part in this. They tried to explain that it was purely Maka and Mika's decision.

"Teenagers make mistakes," Neko said in an attempt to get through to the woman. "They try things without knowing the consequences."

"The bond is with Mika, not Lennard," Niko pleaded. "Their lives are of no concern in this matter. They are only looking out for your son. Don't make this about them."

Mika finally took some initiative and came up to Jenba allowing Kija to be free. She pleaded with her as well. "It was me," she said. "It was me who told him it would be okay. I knew I wouldn't have anyone to do The Bonding to me. I love Maka!"

“Are you his whore too?” The infuriated woman spat at Mika. “Building a harem doc? Well not with my boy you aren’t!”

Harlow was flabbergasted by the sudden change in Jenba's mood. The things she implied about him and Lennard were unfounded. She knew nothing about them, about their lives or circumstances. Yet she insinuated the worst of them and came to the most absurd conclusion.

He wanted to stop and explain his and Lennard's situation. He wanted to tell her about his mindscape and assure her that there was nothing wrong with Maka and Mika. He wanted to help her see that just because their bonding was a little different, it didn't mean it was bad.

But he did none of this. Instead, he bottled up his frustration inside, where he could contain it and deal with it at a better time. He thought this is what Jenba should be doing as well.

Harlow turned away from Jenba's contorted angry face to look at Lennard. To his horror he saw that Lennard's eyes were turning red. He could tell that Lennard would lose control in moments, and that he had to do something quickly to prevent things from getting worse.

He remembered the words of the primal being he had spoken with while inside Lennard's memory: "Use your bond to temper our rage." This made a little more sense to him now.

He quickly extended his tail and grabbed Lennard's. He tried to pull Lennard into the mindscape, but he felt resistance. He couldn't bring Lennard in.

Harlow appeared in his avatar and was glad for once that he could see the world around him from the point of view of his own eyes. He saw Lennard standing next to him, his eyes red and fists clenched. But there was another part to the image now: Harlow could somehow see inside Lennard's body.

It was as if the skin and soft tissues were now an image on top of a diagram of Lennard's internal structures. He could see the bones, the organs, and the blood vessels highlighted in different colors. He was also able to vaguely see the musculature and fatty tissues, as if they were there but semi-transparent.

But what immediately caught Harlow's attention was a dark spot which sat directly below Lennard's heart. It morphed and shifted where nothing else moved, and Harlow knew immediately what it was, or perhaps who it was, more accurately.

It was the primal being.

As if noticing Harlow looking at it, the dark shape formed small eyes that looked directly at him. Those same brightly glowing yellow eyes from before stared at him once again, and Harlow’s insides felt like they were going to turn to liquid.

A voice, the familiar whispery growl of the monster inside Lennard, entered his mind once again. "I rage!" The force of the words made the entire mindscape shake. His vision blurred as the sound echoed through his brain.

Harlow's avatar reeled back in fear. This thing was too strong. What was he going to be able to do to it?

"Use your bond to temper our rage." The words echoed through his mind once again.

He thought about what the words meant. Wasn't he doing exactly as it said and using their bond to try and calm the monster down? He wondered what he was missing. He tried again to pull Lennard in, but the monster's eyes grew brighter and more menacing until he had to stop. What am I missing?

Harlow analyzed the situation. He couldn't force the creature into his mindscape, and therefore Lennard couldn't join him either. The creature had somehow shut off Lennard's higher brain functions, making him function at a primal level.

While the darkness took control of Lennard's body, it kept the peaceful, caring, and knowledgeable parts of Lennard locked away. Harlow could see the faint yellowish glow which represented those parts of Lennard. They were locked in a mental prison. The thick black bars barred Harlow from reaching him.

Harlow was at a loss. He feared this monster, but he cared too much for Lennard to let it take control any further. The longer it stared at him, the more Harlow felt as if it were boring a hole into his soul.

Thoughts began rushing through his mind. Ways of escaping, closing the connection, or blocking out those malevolent yellow eyes which seemed to grow and get closer the longer he was forced to look into them.

It was one of the errant thoughts of escape that sparked a better idea. He first tested the physical connection they shared, and discovered the connection was still open. He couldn't feel anything coming from Lennard, therefore he couldn't pull him into his mindscape. But he could still send emotions and information through to him.

"Use your bond to temper our rage." The phrase rang in his mind once again. This time the phrase was said in his own mental voice rather than the voice of the rage manifestation. The clue was right there. He could counter the rage inside Lennard through their physical bond.

Harlow knew that he was going to have to find a way to calm or contain the beast without Lennard's help. He would have to do this by only using the physical bond their tails created. This would take away all of the higher psychic functions that Harlow had access to.

Everything had to start with him. He would first have to gain control of his own emotions. Only then would he be able to help Lennard.

It was difficult finding a calm center with those menacing yellow eyes boring into him. He even closed his avatar's eyes, but he couldn't block out the two fiery suns that glared at him. He tried his best to ignore them. He looked at his feet and settled his mind as best he could. "You will not get the best of me," he thought to himself.

After what seemed like hours of trying to find his center, Harlow stretched his hands to the sky and brought them down to the floor, laying them palms down. He then brought himself and his hands back up and spread his arms wide.

These were his morning stretching techniques. The small exercise he did each morning to get his body moving and wake up his mind. This was what finally did the trick and allowed him to focus.

Harlow brought his hands together in front of his heart, interlacing the last three fingers of each hand while leaving his pointer fingers and thumbs extended. It was a pose he had always found to be calming. In this position, he was finally able to close his eyes and block out the rage and heat emanating from the creature's yellow eyes.

He let his love for Lennard be his center, allowing thoughts and memories of their time together to fill him with happiness and courage. His aura's blue glow brightened and flowed throughout his body. Once he felt centered and fully in control of himself, he refocused his attention on the physical bond between him and Lennard.

He pushed the feeling of peace out from himself, streaming it through his tail and into Lennard's. It was an unusual process, like blowing water through one hose and into another, then making the water in the second hose go uphill.

But the connection he and his lover shared made the process easier. He watched as the calm blue of his aura entered Lennard's body and permeated his being. Filling his body and surrounding the dark spot underneath his heart.

Harlow closed his eyes and concentrated on Lennard. He could feel the rage inside of him, like a hot coal burning in his chest. He reached out with his mind and wrapped his thoughts around the rage. He imagined it cooling and becoming smaller.

The darkness fought back, repelling his aura and keeping its hold over Lennard. Harlow pushed harder, sending his aura fully into Lennard's body.

The creature fought hard, morphing and changing rapidly. Spikes and blades shot out, trying to fight against the love Harlow sent to rescue his lover.

It was a difficult struggle, but Harlow won out in the end. Once he had figured out that it was the physical connection rather than the psychic connection, that was key. He knew he could do it.

With one last glare, the creature melted upwards and absorbed itself into Lennard's heart. Harlow's aura engulfed Lennard completely.

Harlow was concerned that the dark creature had not actually left Lennard's body, but had only been absorbed back in. However, there was nothing he could do about that now.

He looked over Lennard's body again. It had moved slightly, just as all the others had, but now rather than beginning to rage, it was filled with calmness. A light blue aura permeated throughout Lennard's body, the same aura that Harlow had suffused into it.

As Harlow watched, the light yellow aura that symbolized Lennard's own aura began to infuse into his body as well. The cage which had been built to keep his aura subjugated was released and Lennard’s true self was able to take over. Harlow could tell that the internal struggle within Lennard was finally over.

Harlow could still see into Lennard's body, but he was no longer able to see the dark creature. He wasn't sure how that worked, but he could now shift his focus and return the image back to Lennard's normal gray fur and robe.

Harlow really wanted to stay and relax in the mindscape, but his sense of duty wouldn't let him. With a quick thought, he pulled Lennard into the mindscape with him, just to make sure he had done the right thing.

"Harlow, why are we here? What just happened?" Lennard asked, obviously confused.

Harlow pointed at the scene before them. He showed Lennard where he had been and the state he had been in. He explained what he had done, but still couldn't mention the darkness. It made trying to tell him the story very difficult.

"So there's this... No. You were... No. I had to calm... No." Every time he came close to mentioning the darkness or anything about it, the word "No" rang through the mindscape and kept him from speaking further.

"You were going to rage and I used my aura to calm you," he finally got out. "I wish I could tell you more."

"I wish you could too, but there is obviously some kind of geas or something prohibiting you from talking about whatever it is," Lennard said calmly, but with some worry in his voice as well.

Once they felt ready to deal with reality again, Harlow closed the mindscape and they returned to their physical bodies. Time started moving for them again.

Harlow watched as Lennard's fists relaxed and he closed his eyes. He took a large inhalation of breath, centering himself before continuing.

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The twins saw the change in Lennard. His fists tightened and his muscles tensed. Then his eyes began turning red. The twins tightened their grip on Jenba, fearing a physical altercation was inevitable.

They weren't sure if Lennard would lose himself again the way he had with Brodil, but since Harlow couldn't explain what had happened, they braced for the worst. When Lennard calmed down a few seconds later, they relaxed a little.

Their discussion with Jenba hadn't gone well. She adamantly refused to believe that her son knew about The Bonding ritual, or that he would ever touch their sister's tail. There were harsher words exchanged at the time, but the twins tried their best to overlook them. Especially since Mika would also suffer from the incomplete bonding if not remedied soon.

The twins were not sure how much time Mika had left. The incomplete bond was something Niko had researched when looking into the possibility of bonding her with Harlow. He knew that the two kids needed to complete the bond soon, but the ritual would have to be performed by one of them. With Maka in a coma, that left Mika.

But here they were, holding back the woman who held the fate of not only their sister, but her son. They wanted to punch her almost as much as Lennard did for the accusations she threw around and the ignorance she was showing. However, they also knew that if this situation came to a physical end, they would all suffer the consequences, and everyone would lose.

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Kija was stuck in the middle of all this. She was five years younger than Maka, but loved her brother dearly, and stayed with him throughout his sickness.

When the Poldare twins pulled her mother aside and their little sister Mika came to talk to her, she was excited. She knew Mika, but they weren't in the same age range and so didn't play with each other much. However, Mika often came around to play with Maka.

Mika was nice and asked Kija about her friends and toys. Kija liked talking to Mika, but she kept hearing her mother and the men talk about her brother. They kept using weird words like, "The Bonding." She wasn't sure what that was, but it seemed like it had something to do with Mika and her brother.

Her mother started to get angry and told the men to "back off" and "leave her alone." Then she started walking back into the room with Maka. Kija told Mika goodbye and went with her mother.

In the room, Kija saw something weird. The big man and the boy with the white face were hooked to Maka's tail. She knew touching tails was a no-no. That was something only adults did, and only on special occasions. She didn't understand why these two guys would touch her brother's tail. It scared her.

Her mother was startled too, because she stopped and looked at the guys with her mouth open really wide.

Then her mom rushed forward, so Kija followed her. She was quickly caught by big arms though. It was Mika who had stopped her. Her mom yelled and fought, but then the physician and his apprentice seemed to wake up.

Then Jenba really got angry, and Kija learned a few new words, and got a much better idea of what "The Bonding" was. She didn't really know why, but everyone but her mom wanted Mika and Maka to do it.